December Birthdays

We recently spent some time celebrating December birthdays, Grandpa R, me & Uncle Scott.  Grant thought it necessary to help us blow out our candles, it took a few tries and some assistance but he was successful...a little spit on the cheesecake but still delicious! Ha!

Boxes, paper and bags continue to be the most fun for the kiddos!  Grant kept saying he was in a hot tub with cousin Jake :)

Frank with Francesca and Parker over Thanksgiving

Lastly, Parker surprised us last week with a little white nugget showing through his lower gumline, little stinker, it's TOO early to start teething!!!

We have also safely arrived in Iowa and are enjoying the beautiful sunshine, snowy landscape and "warm" 30's temperatures!

Merry Christmas!

craft time

Grant loves to paint so we broke out the fingerpaints this week since it's a bit cold to be painting on his easel in the garage

This is Grant's first Christmas ornament that was made in his CBS class, I love it!

This week, at our friend's home, we made gingerbread nativity scenes...it has been slighty picked apart by a certain 2 year old :)

Grant has been wearing headphones around the house, we are trying to get him use to wearing them for our flights next week so he can watch a DVD or two on the airplane!

zoo lights

We took advantage of a "warmer" evening to go see the zoo lights and they were pretty awesome!  Grant especially loved the choo-choo train!

We thought of Grandpa & Grandma O in TX :)

Once we arrived at the zoo all Grant wanted to do was go see the elephants and thankfully we got to see 3!  Here the boys are looking in the dark for them, ha!

Our little music man found the drums in "Africa!"

up to

Here's what Parker's been up to these days!

Big bro likes to sit in front of him with his flash cards and teach/entertain his little brother, so sweet!!

cut tree

We (I) were bound and determined to get a Christmas tree up before we travel the middle of this month and so, we braved the cold, at the risk of us all getting sicker, and came home with a beauty!

Two little boys ready to go get cut down our Christmas Tree!  Grant said, "Cut tree! Cut tree! Cut tree!" about a hundred times that day!

Our adorable little Parker Bear ready to find his first Christmas tree!

He brought his own saw!

 Parker was stuck with Mom this year, I'm sure it will be a different story next year!

 Grant and Dad deciding on "the one!"

 Our yearly family photo...this year it was getting dark by the time we finally got out of there!

The two that did the work once home...

 Beautiful I'd say!

the boys

Parker's hair is coming in nicely on the top of his head, I adore his little curls and after it's blow dried from his bath it looks like this :)

Unfortunately, this picture is a bit out of focus but if you notice Grant was telling us he had built a chair out of dominos....where does he come up with this stuff?  It was a perfect chair!

Parker has definitely found his thumb...and usually his entire fist, he likes to suck and chew on all digits!

Giving Thanks

Parker survived his first Thanksgiving!  Unfortunately, this is the best photo I ended up with that day?!  Our goal was to all be healthy for Thanksgiving so we could enjoy the holiday with family and have a fun time at the water park over the weekend.  We managed to accomplish just that but by Monday all four of us were sick with head colds and continue to fight the random viruses this weekend!  Poor Parker has his first low-grade fever tonight but thankfully Grant seems to have turned the corner to recovery and is a bit more like his chipper self!

Parker hanging out with Grandpa R

Grandma R helping keep an eye on Mr P while we all enjoyed the water park!

 Helpful cousin Olivia with Grant!

The big boys just "had" to exceed the weight limit in effort to ride the Howling Tornado at top speeds!

Cousins Olivia, Grant & Parker

Grant in protest to having to leave on Sunday afternoon!

Cousin Francesca having a ball!

Even Grant's buddy Rossi joined us for some water park fun!